Medicare Risk Adjustment: Goals, Reform Proposals, And New Frontiers.

Risk adjustment modifies payments to health insurers based on enrollee characteristics that are predictive of higher or lower medical spending. Risk-adjustment policy is a key ingredient for the success of regulated individual insurance markets in Medicare and beyond. Researchers have identified shortcomings of Medicare's current risk-adjustment system, illustrated the limits of coarse fixes, and proposed new strategies that improve the data and calculations used to generate beneficiary risk scores.

Updated Geriatrics Competencies for Graduating Medical Students: Training Physicians to Provide Age-Friendly Care.

Purpose: Medical student education in geriatrics is a critical need for every doctor-in-training as the population ages, with fewer than 7,000 geriatricians, and older patients, who now approach 20% of the U.S. population, having unique health care needs.

Relugolix reduces leiomyoma extracellular matrix production via the TGF β pathway.

Objective: To determine if the oral GnRH antagonist relugolix affects leiomyoma extracellular matrix production through the TGF β pathway DESIGN: Laboratory Study SUBJECTS: None.

Intervention: Exposure of human leiomyoma cells to TGF β and/or relugolix MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Production of TGF β, pSMAD2/3, SMAD2/3, COL1A1, FN1 and VCAN in treated and untreated leiomyoma cells RESULTS: TGF β3 production was decreased at 24 hours with relugolix at 10nM (0.80 + 0.

Do Emergency Department Observation Units Help Prevent Revisits for Patients with Renal Colic?

Introduction: Renal colic is generally considered a diagnosis appropriate for discharge home once pain is adequately controlled and no other admission criteria are met. The increasing prevalence of ED observation units (EDOU) represent another disposition option for patients with renal colic. In this study, we sought to describe the rates of 14-day revisits for renal colic among patients placed in an EDOU as compared to those discharged from the ED.